The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

January, 1885 AVY department reports that the “electric plant” for incandescent lighting which was supplied to the WS; S. Trenton, has given great satisfaction notwithstanding some defects in the in- sulation of the wires, and has added ma- terially to the comfort and health of the officers and crew. The ATLANTA, Boston and Oma#a are to be lighted by electricity, with plants supplied respec- tively by the U. S. company of New York, the Brush company of Cleveland, and the Consolidated company of New York, respectively so that the merits of each system could be determined. * * * Marine Review, then known as THE MarInE REcorD, entered its seventh year with a group of “best wishes’ from a number of its friends. a ee Amateurs in Great Lakes geography were apparently as numerous then as now. An English marine paper was quoted as having scolded Canada for wasting money on the Welland canal between Lakes Erie and Ontario when the Niagara river offered a natural connecting waterway. eee Officers were elected at the fourth an- nual meeting of the Cleveland Vessel Owner’s association. They were Capt. Alva Bradley, president; H. M. Hanna, vice president; B. L. Pennington, secre- tary; Philip Minch, George P. McKay, Thomas Wilson, R. K. Winslow, M. A. Bradley, J. W. Moore, H. P. Lillibridge, John H. Palmer and W. D. Rees, metm- bers of the executive committee. January, 1895 ICKANDS, MATHER & CO., Cleve- land, were named operating agents for the American Steel Barge Co., to manage its entire fleet of 27 whalebacks. This made Pickands, Mather & Co. the largest vessel operator in the country, giving them a total of 40 vessels, all of them, with one exception, of more than 2000 tons. In the comment on the deal, a remark of John D. Rockefeller that shipbuilding and shipping should be sep- arately conducted businesses was recalled. From the Old Log Book Stray Items About the Great Lakes, Adlcade® Pacifie and Gulf Coasts and Inland Rivers from MARINE REVIEW Files of 10, 20, 30 and 40 Years Ago The Cleveland company was rated as a highly successful operator, one of its vessels having made 29 trips to Lake Superior in the past season, against a good record of 10 trips annually a few years earlier. ae a | Pictures and descriptions were given of interesting old Pennsylvania railroad canal boats of the ’40s. Freight traffic then was handled between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh by the Portage railroad joining canals on either side of the moun- tains. Sectional freight boats were used, which at the end of the canal were sep- arated into three parts, loaded on cars and hauled up the inclines by fixed en- gines and on the level ground by loco- motives. * Ok Ox William Livingstone Jr., Detroit, was elected president of the Lake Carriers’ association, a position he now holds. Oe The Bethlehem Iron Co., m compe- tition with manufacturers of 15 other nations, won through Lieut. Meigs, a contract for armor plate for Russia. This success emphasized the fact that an American battleship now was an Ameri- can-built vessel throughout. x ok Ox Professor Wright of Oberlin college ‘warned lake shipowners that they should oppose the proposed Chicago drainage canal as it would seriously affect lake levels. (The actual results after years of existence has just been argued before the Supreme Court.) He compared the lakes to an elevated saucer, so that the slightest disturbance in any direction tended to send the water over the edge. A 50-foot westward tilt would send all the water through the Chicago divide. A 100-foot northward tilt would send all the water through Lake Nipissing into the Ottawa river. January, 1905 WO years earlier, in 1903, the steam- er Repusric, a lake freighter, had been lengthened 72 feet by the American Ship Building Co. This was. the first lake freighter to get increased capacity by the simple expedient of increasing her length. The success of the Re- puBLic and the growing appreciation of the 10,000-ton freighter brought about 28 a rush of work in the winter of 1904-05 in lengthening steamers, notably the G. J. Grammar, S. S. Curry, City oF Ban- cor, L. C. Watpo, Savona, CoNsTITU- TION and, VICTORY. * * * Merchant Marine League of the United States presents an analysis of the new shipping bill just presented to congress. It called for a naval militia plan by which the government would pay a re- tainer to the seamen and officers of the merchant marine, and for higher pay- ments for carrying mail. ook sk American marine history repeats it- self. Twenty years ago, that is in 1905, MarINgE Review was relating how the coastwise laws had been extended to in- clude the Philippine islands. The time set was July 1, 1904 but congress later postponed the date until July 1, 1906. Later it was withdrawn entirely. The merchant marine act of 1920 put the Philippines under our coastwise laws beginning Feb. 1, 1922 but allowed the President to defer enforcement. The law is still suspended with no prospect of its being made effective. x * Ok _L. C. Hanna retired as active head of M. A. Hanna & Co. He had been asso- ciated with this large ore and _ vessel company for 30 years and for 10 years had been the active head. January, 1915 N THIS issue, Martine Review had an interesting article on “Our Merchant Marine” written by Senator-elect Warren G. Harding. He started his article with “1 speak for a restored and maintained American merchant marine.” Mr. Har- ding certainly carried out with fidelity his own words as later when he became President, the merchant marine was one of his main interests. But even his fervor was not able to break through the heedlessness of an uninterested congress. ae ok Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan died. He was America’s foremost naval strategist and the world’s greatest au- thority on sea power. He published his book “The Influence of Sea Power Upon History” in 1890 and immediately this gave him an international reputation.